Yes, Ma'am!
by ShatteredLyre
Summary: Because when one prim and proper hostess meets a bumbling, earnest ex-shaman, there's bound to be some tension. Add in two scheming siblings, one lazy perv, and three sadistic waitresses, then you have a full fledged disaster on your hands. -For elviella-


**Yes, Ma'am!**

**dedicated to: elviella (here's part two of an extremely, extremely, _extremely_ belated birthday present!)**

**

* * *

**"Goddamn!" Heavy boxes were slammed down on the floor. "Finally here!" Usui Horohoro placed his hands on his hips and surveyed Yoh's former-residence-turned-inn before picking up the boxes again. "Sweet digs here." He smiled. "It's nice to be back in town."

He heard someone come shuffling up behind him and then suddenly come to a sharp halt. "You've got to be kidding me."

Horohoro turned around to come face to face with one Matilda (aka, Macchi) Matisse. "No way." He tried stifling a laugh. "No freakin' way. You're part of the Hanagumi, aren't you? What are you doing here?"

Macchi glared at him and opened her mouth to speak when two other women dressed in the same uniform as her came into the lobby. "Macchi, what's going on? Mari and I need you in the—You've got to be kidding me."

Horohoro gave up on trying anymore. He exploded into laughter. "This is…this is too funny. The Hanagumi…the freakin' Hanagumi…Hao's most powerful allies…they're…" Tears began streaming down his face as all three women's countenances began bordering those of homicidal maniacs. "They're working for Anna as…as…as…" He wiped his watery eyes enough to read the name tag pinned onto Mari's uniform. "Waitresses? Waitresses! Holy crap! And you guys are gonna…" He clutched at his sides that were beginning to cramp up from all his laughter. "You guys are gonna serve me!"

"Shut the hell up!" Macchi snarled at him. "Shut up or I'll tear out your small intestines and then feed them to—"

"Ooooh, Macchi, I'm telling her that you spoke disrespectfully to one of our guests when she gets back from grocery shopping!" came a snickering voice. All four former shamans turned around.

"Redseb? Is that you, man?" Horohoro's eyebrows shot up in pleasant surprise as the smiling brown haired boy waved. He clapped him on the back. "All grown up now, huh? Last time I remember seeing you, you were still a snot nosed brat that only came up to my knees."

Redseb punched him in the shoulder playfully. "Aw, come on, I wasn't that short! And yup, pretty much. I'm gonna be a second year in university next month!" He smiled proudly. "Isn't that right, Seyram?" he called loudly, leaning back a little to project his voice down the hallway to his left.

A loud, bored sigh was the only thing that greeted their ears.

Horohoro momentarily looked at the three ex-members of the Hanagumi, surprised to see that they were transfixed in their exact poses as before, their faces thoroughly drained of color. "Damn, what's their deal?"

"R-Redseb…y-you're not going…going to actually tell…" Macchi gulped. "_Her_, are you?"

Kanna and Mari immediately locked their gazes onto Redseb, anticipating his answer.

He frowned, his playful, teasing behavior evaporating. "Nah…I saw what she did to you guys last time…Looked like it hurt." He waved his hand at them. "I'll let you off the hook this time!"

"Shit, Anna must still be a super control freak monster witch…" Horohoro mumbled as he observed the shell-shocked faces of the three girls as they exited the lobby and went back into the kitchen. He shook his head, making a mental note to curb his typical boisterous behavior by a little when he would see her later. "Anyways, do I need to sign in somewhere?"

"Well, I mean since you're Yoh and Anna's friend, you'll be staying here for free but I guess it wouldn't hurt to have your name recorded in the guest book just for future reference." He shrugged and led Horohoro over to the check in counter. "I'll just enter your name in since Ryu isn't here at the moment…"

Horohoro blinked in surprise as he placed his two boxes on top of the counter. "Ryu works as the receptionist?" He didn't remember the Umemiya man saying exactly what position he held at the inn.

Redseb nodded as he flipped the guest book open to the latest entry. "Yeah, he's on break right now. Probably having a smoke or something. He should be back soon."

Horohoro busied himself by looking at the various little pictures and forms and certificates pinned on the bulletin board behind and next to the desk as Redseb wrote down Horohoro's guest details. He smiled as he spied a few pictures of the whole gang back in the day at Patch Village, a group shot at the airport before everyone went separate ways, and a portrait from when they had their reunion so many years ago. And then his gaze fell upon a black and white picture of a gently smiling girl. "Oh, crap, who's that?" Horohoro exclaimed, leaning forward with his jaw open.

Redseb looked up in momentary confusion before looking at the picture Horohoro was pointing at. "Huh?"

"She's freakin' cute, man!"

"Wait, are you serious?" Redseb grinned. "You don't recognize the mistress of the very inn you'll be staying in for the next few months?"

Horohoro's eye twitched. _What the…that's Anna? Ew, I just called Anna cute…He shuddered at the mere thought of it. Better not tell anyone about this… He shook his head and studied the picture closer. But…she looks different here. Way different._ He shrugged. _Her face probably just changed.__ A lot. _"So that's Anna?" he asked casually.

Redseb drew his eyebrows together. "Anna…?"

Suddenly the front door of the lobby swung open and a woman who was carrying a towering load of groceries so tall that it hid her face from plain view came in. "Where are those good for nothing waitresses of mine…" the voice sighed. "I swear, I'll perform the Ultimate Shugen on them if they keep slacking off. Honestly…"

Redseb looked back at Horohoro, a devious grin plastered on his face. "You'll see who it is in a second." He snorted. "Have fun with that." He brought a single finger to his lips to indicate Horohoro to not tell the mysterious lady that he had been there and then he quietly slipped through the back exit, leaving Horohoro slouched over the counter.

"Where is everyone? Hanagumi waitresses! Seyram! Redseb!" The lady finally put down her groceries and straightened her overly formal kimono out. "Where is—Oh." She blinked as she saw Horohoro. "Hello…there."

Horohoro saw the exact same lady in the picture standing before him. Except, now he instantly recognized her. There was no mistaking that shocking pink shade of hair.

"T…" He instantly blanked. He had never talked to the girl back then and only knew her as quiet-girl-who-cooked-really-well or mute-girl-who-would-nearly-faint-in-Yoh's-presence or silent-girl-who-was-being-harassed-by-Ryu-all-the-time. All he knew was that her name started with a "T" and that's about it. He backtracked and amended his greeting. "Hi, I'm—"

"Usui Horohoro. Yes, I know who you are of course." A twinge of guilt panged somewhere within him as he had immediately assumed that she didn't know who he was as well. "I assume that at least one person in this entire inn showed you enough common courtesy to greet you and sign you in?"

"Er…yes." The way she phrased questions made it very difficult to have a conversation, Horohoro found out, as she only asked yes-or-no inquiries. While she began rearranging her hair, Horohoro quickly looked at the name pin on her collar. _Tamao. Oh, that's right, her name was Tamao!_

"Well then, unfortunately, you'll have to share a room with Hana since someone booked all the rooms…" She cleared her throat uncomfortably.

"One person booked all the rooms? Wow, talk about intense." He laughed, trying to lighten the awkward atmosphere between them but then that attempt immediately died off as Tamao's expression remained unchanged.

"Yes, well it is quite understandable, considering the Tao's were the ones who made the reservations—"

Horohoro's eyes widened. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold the phone. Tao. Tao Ren reserved a room here?"

"All nine rooms. And he reserved them for his son and his…people."

Horohoro frowned as he recollected how bratty Ren's son had been the last time they had a reunion. "'People'? That kid has 'people' now? What, like his own mini-stylist and his own personal cook and…" his voice trailed off as he ran out of steam.

Tamao cleared her throat again uncomfortably and clearly in disapproval. "Bodyguards. Tao Men has bodyguards."

"Ah…o…kay…" Horohoro pressed his lips firmly together, very much at a loss as to what to say to her very curt, very short reply. _Dang, Tamao sure has changed…a lot since I last saw her. What happened to that shy little girl who would stutter and blush whenever someone asked her a question? Jeez, it's like talking to an exact replica of Anna…just with pink hair and without the death threats and constant sarcasm. But still, just as cold and distant as her blond counterpart._ "So, um…Where's Hana's room?" he asked lamely as a last ditch effort to salvage the conversation between them.

"Second floor, third door to your right." Tamao offered nothing else in terms of her response as she gathered up her groceries again. "Now if you'll excuse me…" She motioned towards the kitchen.

Horohoro jerked back. "Oh, yeah of course, sorry, let me just…" _Well, at least I didn't leave a bad impression. She won't look down upon me unlike Anna—_ He pulled his hand back a little too fast and he toppled over a box that had been precariously perched a little too close to the edge of the counter to begin with. "Ah, crap!" Clothes and shoes spilled out and all over the floor. He immediately began gathering them back up and placing it back into the box. _Wait, I packed all my shoes in the same box as the—_ His eyes widened to epic proportions. _Oh SHIT._

"You…" He could literally hear Tamao's voice come to a grinding halt, the rest of her sentence being cut cleanly off as if it had been sliced off by a guillotine. "Hm."

Horohoro didn't want to look up. He would've rather chopped off his own fingers and then proceed to eat them than look up. He wanted to melt through the floor and disappear. But he forced himself to do it. He willed himself to raise his eyes as more and more of the floor came into view and he saw what had come to a perfect stop right before Tamao's feet, all seven of them neatly fanned out as if they were on display in a store.

"Tokyo's Hottest Playmates!: Bigger is Better Edition," she calmly read out loud, her poker face still intact. Tamao used her foot to gather all of Horohoro's…interesting choice of literature into one pile and proceeded to pick it up as if she were touching a disease infested, rotting rat corpse by the very tips of her fingers and dropped it very disapprovingly into the box on the floor.

_Say something, you idiot! _he screamed at himself._ Say something or she'll think that you're a porno-reading perv for the rest of your stay here…well, I mean, you _are _a porno-reading perv but that's not the only thing you are! And for once they're not actually yours! Say something! Apologize! Tell her that you bought them for Ryu! Psh, like she'd believe that…too obvious of an excuse even though it's actually the truth… Say that they're Yoh's and you're just returning them! ...wait, no don't say that. Didn't she used to have a huge ass crush on Yoh? Yeah, saying that they're his probably isn't the best of ideas. But say something or she'll think you're this dirty, disgusting guy that just spends all day pleasing himself. Oh, good God, she's the prettiest girl you've seen in how long? Heck, she's the _only _cute girl you've seen in years since everyone knows that all the women up near the farm in Hokkaido are not easy on the eyes by any means. And what do you go and do? You ruin any molecule of respect she might have had for you to begin with! Oh no, she's still staring at me! Why have you been rambling to yourself instead of saying something?_

"I'd advise you to go to Hana's room and unpack your things. Dinner is in an hour." And with that, she disappeared through the swinging doors into the kitchen.

Horohoro stood, planted in the exact same pose. "Yes, ma'am," he said weakly.

* * *

"Crap, crap, crap, crap," he repeated over and over again as he retrieved an article of clothing and put it away on his side of the room. "You…" He leaned against the bed and banged his head against his knee. "Idiot…" he sighed.

He spaced out, looking over the posters and books and CDs that littered Hana's half of the room, smiling half-heartedly at intervals as he saw things that reminded him of Yoh. "Just like his father…" He shrugged. "Well, then, that means we'll get along pretty well if he's anything like Yoh."

He reached back into the box and pulled out its remaining contents, staring down at the magazines that had gotten him into trouble in the first place. "Damnit, why'd I have to go and buy these for Ryu at the airport?" he lamented, letting one of the magazines drop from his hand and into his lap, the pages opening. He stared down at them, willing it to spontaneously combust into flames.

Suddenly yelling and a large crash came from downstairs and Horohoro could hear some very angry footsteps approaching. "What the—" The door to the room slammed open to reveal a very moody teenage boy.

Horohoro blinked, his brain too startled to function. "Uh, hi, Hana-boy."

"Why the hell are you here?" Suddenly, the boy's eyes bugged out. "And why are you reading pornography in my room?" Hana screeched. Horohoro was quite sure that his eardrums had probably burst from the high pitched shriek Yoh's son had emitted.

_This cannot be happening._ Horohoro scowled as he realized that the door was very much open indeed and Hana's loud exclamation could clearly be heard all around the inn. "Gah, jeez, my bad, okay? But I've got my…reasons," he said carefully, wincing as he remembered his embarrassing, awkward encounter with Tamao earlier. "I decided that hiding myself here for a while would be the best choice."

"I can't believe you're looking at porn in my room!" Hana kept on shrieking, obviously not listening to Horohoro at all.

_If he keeps this up, Tamao won't be the only thinking that I'm some sort of sick bastard._ "There were no free rooms left so I was told to share yours," he tried explaining in an attempt at quieting Hana down.

"Freakin' kid…" he mumbled and rummaged through his backpack, quickly pulling out whatever he could get his hands on. _Marimo? Whatever, maybe it'll make him shut up._ "Here, take this. When you get used to the taste, it isn't that bad."

Hana took the box and actually fell silent, much to Horohoro's surprise. That seriously worked? No way. At least he's being quiet and not—

"This crap is your commercial failure!" Hana exploded, throwing the marimo at Horohoro's face. "That's probably why you can only afford cheap dime store rags!" the boy yelled, pointing at the magazine still open in Horohoro's lap. "I can't stand this anymore! You all are always making a fool out of me!" He ran back out the door and thundered down the stairs. "I can't even call this a home! I'm leaving this place!" he heard Hana shout at Tamao as he burst through the front doors of the inn.

"Master Hana—!" Amidamaru suddenly materialized, calling after the young shaman.

Horohoro sighed. "Leave him alone, Amidamaru." He put his hands behind his head, more worried about Hana's previous exclamations being heard by Tamao than about the teen's angsty outburst. "He'll come back soon."

The ghost looked appalled at the Ainu shaman's suggestion. "How do you know that?"

He shrugged. "He's a teenager. Everybody has gone through this at some point."

_Maybe the doors to the kitchen are thick and she didn't' hear—_

"Horohoro has a point, Amidamaru." Ryu and Tamao appeared at the door.

_Goddamnit! She definitely heard._

"Even I went through a similar situation at his age. Teenage tendencies, out of control hormones…some of us grow out of it…" She looked pointedly at Horohoro who still hadn't moved the magazine out of his lap by now. "While others of us…don't," she said icily.

"Mistress Tamao!" Amidamaru exclaimed. "But—"

"After the tournament was over and I had to replace Miss Anna…It was really…" If Horohoro had been looking at Tamao instead of at the wall in embarrassment, he would've seen a sad, hurt expression flicker onto her face for a split second. "It was really hard for me but…" She straightened up and her cool exterior erected around her once again. "But thanks to those days I am who I am today. I think that God only gives us tests we are able to pass."

"Wow…" Amidamaru and Horohoro breathed at the same time, awed by the wisdom with which Tamao had spoken.

Ryu cut in, his brash voice effectively killing the thoughtful atmosphere Tamao's words had brought. "Not to mention I called Redseb and told him not to let Hana stay the night at his place! So he's basically guaranteed to come back."

Tamao cheerfully nodded, sadistic happiness oozing from her. "And we'll be waiting for him to welcome him back because we're all family."

And by that, she obviously meant _I'm going to beat him to a bloody pulp using his own arm after I dislocate it from his body and then feed him to the lions in the zoo._

Horohoro snorted at the visual image that was called to mind and Tamao shot him a cold look. "Mr. Usui, do you have a problem with this?" she asked calmly.

He shook his head and shot to his feet, bowing his head. "No, ma'am!" he said emphatically as if answering a general in the army.

Amidamaru held back a laugh and Ryu stifled a giggle.

Tamao frowned and examined him, her eyes roaming disapprovingly over his whole frame. She cleared her throat, primly clasping her hands in front of her. "Mr. Usui, as long as you're here you live by my rules. Do you understand?"

He snapped to attention and saluted her. "Yes, ma'am!"

"…That's not funny." She looked at him one last time before slowly shuffling out of the room.

Horohoro groaned, feeling a huge, awkward weight being lifted from his shoulders.

Ryu immediately rushed over. "Hey! I've missed you!"

The Ainu shaman smiled. "I've missed you too—" He turned to the inn receptionist to see him hunched over his box. "…You were talking to the magazines…weren't you?"

Ryu smiled and nodded. "Ah, I'm just kidding. Glad to see that you're doing well! We should catch up over dinner…Not that you would have anyone else to talk to, what with Tao Men just dying to stab something, his 'people' fawning over the little Tao brat, Tamao thinking you're a first class perv, and the Hanagumi waitresses being the Hanagumi waitresses." He clapped him on the back, gathering the magazines up in his hands. "Thanks for buying these for me! Tamao would've killed me if I had bought them."

Horohoro rolled his eyes. "You know, you could've just hid them. Now my reputation is down the sink."

"Oh, don't worry, I'm planning on hiding these to the best of my ability. It's the buying part that would be tricky. Tamao pays all the cashiers in town to tell her what I buy at their stores…She says it's to make sure the reputation of the inn doesn't get ruined or something." He bounced back towards the door. "Whatever that means." He gave one final wave. "I'll see you later."

* * *

"You've got to be shitting me!" Horohoro howled, angrily kicking at the sopping wet pile of laundry that the washing machine had decided to throw up halfway through the second rinse cycle. "Why, why, why!" He slapped his forehead.

"Maybe because that washing machine is older than I am?" Ryu frowned, leaning against the doorframe. "Here, I'll take care of that for you."

Horohoro perked up. "Wait, seriously?"

Ryu shrugged. "Yeah, you've been having a rough week so I might as well help." He waved Horohoro away. "Go and take a shower since...well...no offense but you reek like a dumpster."

Horo sniffed his shirt. "Oh that's because I was doing some manual labor earlier...gotta find a way to pay the bills and all, you know?"

"And what odd job did you get hooked up with? Rolling around in the sewers for an hour?" Ryu shook his head. "Anyways, you can borrow some of my clothes for the time being. You know where my room is, right?"

Horohoro nodded. "Yup, thanks a bunch, man! I seriously owe you one." As he sprinted up the stairs, taking two steps at a time, his mind began to wander.

_You've been having a rough week._

"Tch, talk about understatement of the year," he muttered to himself as he locked the bathroom door behind him. "But seriously, she doesn't have to be so hard on everyone..." He paused before entering the shower. "I don't like the Hanagumi waitresses but even I feel sorry for them. Psh and I'm a guest and she still treats me like a servant." He tried remembering what had transpired within the last week since his arrival.

_Oh, Great Spirit, why is this happening? No, no, not my arm! Why does it feel like Satan is eating me? Make it stop! Why is my leg on fire?_

On second thought, maybe it's better if he didn't remember.

"Jeez, the Ultimate Shugen is no joke," he muttered to himself, shivering as the freezing cold water poured down on him in sheets. "And she says that she has to save all the hot water for Hana." He snorted. "Bullshit."

Ever since Hana had come back from wherever he had run off to, Tamao had been doubly as strict and harsh on everyone who was working in the inn. It had gotten so bad that Redseb and Seyram stopped visiting and helping out recently. Tamao fluctuated between abusing anyone who crossed her path and withdrawing completely, isolating herself in her room and not talking to anyone for periods of several days.

He snorted. "She sure has changed a lot. I bet no one would recognize her if they saw her in action nowadays." He frowned. "But still, I wonder if something happened..." Horohoro mused. He sighed. "Not like I'd able to help her if there was something wrong...or like she'd _let _me help her." He stumbled out of the bath, wrapping a towel around his waist. "Oh well. Time to get clothes." _Second to the left, second to the left_, he recited over and over in his head in a singsong voice.

His first thought was that Ryu's room was unusually pink (even though he _was _Ryu). His second thought was that he was an absolute dumbass.

"Oh crap—"

"Mr. Usui, why are you in my—" The rest of her question was abruptly cut off by the most ladylike but still shrill shriek he had ever heard (which is saying quite a lot considering he had grown up with Pirika). "I-I-I-I—" She threw up her hands as if in an act of self-defense against whatever offense his half-naked body was inflicting upon her.

Horo blinked in happy surprise; he had been worried earlier that she would've beheaded him for entering her territory. "Jeez, calm down. It's not like I'm completely naked or whatever," he said, walking towards her.

She buried her face into the crook of her elbow even more, waving and gesticulating rather wildly. "No, no! D-D-Don't come any c-closer!" She dropped her hands momentarily, allowing Horohoro to see that her face was completely, absolutely red. "Please put something on!"

He snorted. He snickered. He laughed. It wasn't long before he melted into an absolute fit of giggles. "Yes, ma'am!" he said through his riotous laughter, weakly saluting her before doubling over.

"It's n-not funny!" she said except she said it in abashed embarrassment instead of cold indifference the way she would nearly every other time she answered him. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" she said over and over again so quickly that she began stumbling over her words as she shuffled madly backwards out of the room, slamming the door shut.

"What...just happened?"

* * *

"You're certain of this?" Ryu asked, a hopeful look gracing his face.

"Tamao was embarrassed?" Redseb's jaw fell in disbelief.

"She stuttered?" Even Seyram looked surprised.

"Yes! We had all thought that the sweet, shy Tamao from years ago was dead and gone!" Ryu exclaimed gleefully. "I have a reason to live again!"

Horohoro sighed. "Has it really been this bad since Anna and Yoh left for America? And you three, I know you're hiding around the corner."

A collective irritated sigh was heard and the thee waitresses crept out. Kanna cleared her throat. "Dumbass—I mean, Usui. We—" She hesitated, looking at Macchi.

"We're prepared to—Ehm." Macchi coughed, waving at Mari to continue.

The stoic girl thrust her fist out at him. "Here."

Horohoro jerked back in surprise as wads of cash fell into his hands. "What the—Why are you giving me money? This looks like a lot."

"It's several months' worth of our pay," Kanna stated quickly. "We are prepared to give you all of this money."

"Just bring back the old Tamao!" Macchi screamed, grabbing Horohoro by the front of his shirt. "Please! I'm begging you! I'll do anything!" She tore at her hair. "I can't take this anymore!"

Horohoro stared at her in pure, unadulterated fear and horror. "Is...is she really..."

"Mari would rather be dead again than endure this any longer," Mari said coldly.

"Um...alright...I guess I can try but..." He looked down at the crumpled bills. "Aw, but I can't take your money. I'll do it because I think everyone here would be better off because of it."

The waitresses breathed a sigh of relief before Kanna snatched all the cash back from him. "Then in that case, I'll be taking this." The three then strode away.

"Are you sure you're up to it?" Redseb asked cautiously. "Because it'll be tough. She's been like this for fifteen years..."

"Heh. I might not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but once I see a challenge, I just can't pass it up!" Horohoro rubbed his hands together.

Redseb, Seyram, and Ryu looked at each other in silence.

"Five thousand yen he'll fail," Seyram said before walking away.

"Ten thousand he'll crash and burn!" Ryu called after her.

* * *

"What are you doing?" Seyram finally asked after she heard Tamao enter her room. "I'm trying to do homework here!"

Horohoro who had been lurking by the stairwell as Tamao ascended to the second floor. "I'm waiting for her to crack and when she does..." He punched the wall. "I'll be there to catch it!"

Seyram narrowed her eyes. "All you've been doing these past two and a half weeks is stalking her around the inn."

"Excuse me, it's called _reconnaissance_," he said indignantly, sticking his tongue out at her.

"Mature," she scoffed. "And if you're serious about getting her to revert back to her old self, then maybe you should try...oh, I don't know..._doing something about it_?"

"Tch. So demanding." He pouted until Seyram gestured at him to go upstairs. "Fine, fine."

"Though, she _has _toned it down from flagrantly violating the United Nations constitution of human rights to inhumane borderline illegal abuse. I'll give you that." Horohoro puffed his chest out in pride. "Of course, that's only because she had the infinite displeasure of seeing you with only a towel on," Seyram sniffed.

"I'm halfway up the stairs and I can't hear you. La la la la la," Horohoro said, clamping his hands over his ears in an effort to drown out what Seyram was saying. _Psh, Seyram...talk about a miniature Anna in the making_, he thought but he couldn't keep himself from smiling. He took a deep breath as he took came face to face with Tamao's door. "Tamao!" he shouted a little bit more loudly than he had been intending on. He rapped on her door sharply.

"Y-Yes?" she asked, appearing more than a little frazzled.

"I was just—Uh...what's that?" he asked, pointing to a veritable pool of light pink cream in her hands.

"Facial mask. It moisturizes the skin," she said slowly, gradually backing away from the door.

"Whoa, you're gonna put all of that on your face?" he asked. "That's a lot."

An awkward, tight smile formed on her face. "Well, I didn't have this much in my hands before...right before you screamed and nearly banged my door down," she said tersely.

"So I scared you and you accidentally squeezed too much out?" Horohoro summarized.

"Yes, if you want to put it that way." Tamao sighed, looking down at her hands. "This stuff is expensive so it's a shame to waste it..." she said sadly.

"Give some to me then!"

She blinked in surprise. "W-What?"

He shrugged. "You said it's good for the skin, right?" He held his hand out. "Here, give me some!"

She bit her lip and avoided his eyes. "A-Are you sure?"

_Aha! There it is! The old Tamao!_ "Better than letting it go to waste, r—" Before he could even finish his question, she had dumped half of the concoction in his hands. "Al-right."

"So...um...I'll see you later then." She kicked the door shut but Horohoro stuck his foot in.

"Er, can I come in?"

Her eyes grew wide. "Men are not allowed in—"

"Relax, I'm not going to try pulling anything. It'd just be easier since you can tell me when to remove it...considering I've never done this before," he laughed.

She reddened. "Oh...um...okay, then."

She wordlessly showed him where to apply it before reclining on a chair while Horohoro opted to lie down on the hard wooden chair.

"So...uh, where did you buy this stuff since it's expensive and all?"

"Oh! Well, I didn't actually buy it. It was a...gift," she explained calmly.

_Damn, I'm losing her._ "Gift, huh? Who's it from? Boyfriend. Secret admirer?" he teased.

She cleared her throat. "No, Lord Yoh gave it to me." She kept a straight face on but nothing could hide the note of pure happiness in her voice.

Horohoro frowned. "Really? That's surprising. I didn't know you guys were so close."

Immediately, her face darkened. "He...didn't buy it for me. It was supposed to be a present for Lady Anna." She clenched her teeth. "But she didn't like it so Lord Yoh decided to give it to the only other feasible candidate...me. An afterthought." She shook herself. "E-Excuse me. I'm sorry, I'm not usually like this."

Horohoro nearly sat up. "No, no, it's fine. So you...still...Yoh?"

"I'm sorry but can we not talk about this?" she asked curtly. They sat in silence for nearly ten minutes, not saying a word to each other.

He sighed, not knowing what to do.

Tamao suddenly stood up. "Time to wash it off. Are—"

"I killed the only girl who ever liked me," he said, looking right at her.

Her eyes widened. "W-W-What?"

"I mean, it's my fault that she died. I haven't ever really forgiven myself for that. My real name is Horeku. My father has pretty much disowned me because he thinks I'm a huge failure as a son. I've felt like I have no purpose ever since the Shaman Fight ended which is pretty much the reason I moved back here. I hate my job and I don't even like the taste of marimo. I'm jealous that all of my friends are successful and have been or are in relationships even though I pretend to be happy for them. I love snowboarding and everything about Hokkaido. I'm terrible at remembering names and in fact, when I first arrived here, I didn't remember your name. For the longest time, my sister was my only friend growing up. And I'm a complete mess who can hardly take care of himself, let alone anyone else and it gets to me so much sometimes that I can't even believe I ever tried becoming Shaman King."

She remained silent.

"Tamao? Are you still awake?"

"Y-Yeah. Just...thinking," she said softly.

He smiled a little. "There's probably more about me but those are the first things that came to mind—"

"You really didn't remember my name?"

He inwardly groaned. "From everything I said..._That's_ what you retained?"

She giggled before clapping a hand over her mouth. "I'm just kidding..." She began clearing away various utensils from the small table in front of her mirror. "Better remove that soon or your skin will get irritated."

He grinned sheepishly. "Alright. I'll just, um, go now and...yeah. I'll go wash this off now."

"Oh! Um, Horohoro..." she called after him in a small voice. "Th-Thank...you..."

He tapped the side of his hand to his forehead. "Yes, ma'am!"

* * *

"I don't get it. I thought you said that you were making progress!" Redseb groaned. "And now she's acting even more distant with you?"

"Yeah, she even called me Horohoro for the first time that night." He stretched, readjusting the cloth that was covering his face.

"Um...what's with...why are you covering your face?" Redseb asked slowly.

Seyram didn't even bother looking up from her homework. "Psh, don't question it. He's doing the whole world a kind service by masking that dorky face of his."

Horohoro whipped the cloth off of his face. "Excuse me? 'Dorky face'? I'm gonna—"

"Sweet mother of—what happened to your skin?" Redseb gaped, inspecting Horohoro's severely irritated, inflamed skin.

He waved his hands wildly. "Long story. Anyways, at least she's just being distant instead of abusive..."

"Are you two that dense?" Seyram drawled, slamming her textbook down on the table.

"What are you talking about?" her brother demanded.

"Yeah! What he said!" Horohoro exclaimed.

She simply rolled her eyes. "Tamao has been virtually alone her entire life. She's an orphan, she's been an outsider in the very home she grew up in since she isn't and never will be an Asakura. During the Shaman Fight, she was always left by herself and she didn't even have any relation whatsoever to any of the old gang except to Yoh who was too busy saving the world. She was left by Yoh and Anna to raise a kid who has grown to fear and resent her. All the employees here are too scared to actually talk to her or try to be friends with her. And now, all of a sudden there's this weird guy who is being nice to her out of nowhere even though she's been constantly mistreating him ever since he arrived her when the boy she would fawn over and idolize never even paid attention to her at all!"

The two boys merely blinked at her. "What the heck are you trying to say?" Redseb scowled at her.

"What I'm trying to say is that of _course _she's not going to know how to react to this!" Seyram fired back. "So she just does what she knows best: she distances herself from everything." She gathered her books up and strutted out of the room, her nose in the air.

Redseb made a rude gesture at Seyram's departing form. "Feh. I'll never understand women." He jumped up and planted his face against the window. "Hey, look, it's raining!"

"Um, are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Horohoro asked slowly. They both looked at each other in mutual understanding.

"Holy crap, did we just become best friends?"

* * *

"Um, what do you suppose she's doing?" Horohoro asked as Redseb fired up the hose, the pair of them already soaked to the bone due to twenty minutes of being out in the rain.

Redseb shrugged, spraying the Ainu shaman full force with the inn's powerul hydraulic hose. "Who knows? She always just sits on the porch and stares at the clock for hours on end once every few months."

Horohoro peeled himself off the ground, mindlessly playing around in a puddle he had landed in. "And no one's ever thought of asking her why?"

Redseb dismissvely waved his hand. "And risk getting our asses Ultimate Shugen-ed?" He shook his head. "No thanks. Anyways—eh? Horohoro? Where'd you go?"

"Hey."

"Hello, Mr. Usui."

He tilted his head to the side. "What are you doing?"

She studied him carefully. "Waiting." She smoothed her skirt out. "Lady Anna said that a good woman always waits. And get out of the rain or you'll catch a cold."

He chose to ignore her last statement as he swung his hands backwards so that they were cradling his head from behind. "Waiting for what?"

"For Lady Anna and Lord Yoh. Lady Anna said that they should be arriving today from America."

"Ah." A pause. "Come play."

Tamao looked flabergasted. "...What? Did you really—I'm the sole hostess of this inn; Lady Anna said that I can't afford to fall ill—"

"Tamao?"

"Yes?"

"Look around."

"...Alright."

"Do you see _Lady _Anna around here?" he drawled sarcastically.

"...N-No..."

"Exactly! She's thousands of miles away and has no idea if you're playing perfect hostess here or keeping a harem of seasoned drag queens in this beloved inn of hers." He motioned for her to come join him. "Come on! It's fun!" His eyes lit up. "Oh, of course! Hold on a sec." He rushed inside the inn despite Tamao's groans that he would just track mud and dirty rainwater inside. He rushed back out into the rain and opened the umbrella for her. "So you won't get wet!"

"I...I don't know..."

He held a hand out for her. "You won't get sick."

"You promise?" she asked uncertainly.

He grinned. "Yes, ma'am!"

"Alright then." She lifted her skirts before cautiously and oh so slowly making her way down the damp wooden steps.

He looked up at the sky, humming to himself as he searched around for something to talk about. "So...um, I heard that you're training to be a singer?"

She had a satisfied small smile on her face. "Ah, yes, I am. How did you find out?"

He raised one of his eyebrows. "The twenty by ten foot promotional poster in the lobby of you isn't exactly very subtle."

"It wasn't?" She blinked blankly, pursing her lips slightly in genuine confusion.

He studied her, his mind unable to decide whether he should offer a half-hearted, awkward laugh at her unbelievable ignorance or continue staring at her like a fish (mouth partially parted and everything). She kept a resolute poker face the entire time, not showing any mercy towards him or offering any cues as to how he should react. A tightening of facial muscles was the proverbial crack in the armor that did it for him. "Holy, sweet—it's a joke. I thought you were being serious," he laughed.

"Do you really think I'm so ignorant that...why are you laughing?"

He readjusted the umbrella which began to erratically droop over while he had been laughing. "I didn't know that you had a sense of humor! Finally, scientific evidence that Tamao is actually human! Praise the gods and call the papers!" He straightened up. "Heh, I'm just kidding. Anyways, I could never do what you do."

She regarded his statement thoughtfully. "Do what? Sing? Or actually think and use my brain before speaking?"

_Ouch. Below the belt but well-deserved._ "I'm a horrible singer."

She nodded knowingly. "Yes, I'm well aware of that fact."

_Tch, come on, is it that easy to believe that I'm a terrible singer?_ "Oh, darn, did I leave the bathroom door open again while I was singing in the shower again? I should stop that. Awful habit, really," he responded dryly.

"No. Last time Manta was here, he showed me a video of you singing in a bar. What was that website called again? Ah yes, the video was on that YouTube thing." She smiled wryly at him. "I wouldn't have pegged you as a Taylor Swift fan..."

"'You Belong With Me' is a song that has incredible emotional depth, range and intensity that most people overlook, okay?" he said vehemently, swinging the umbrella around as he fervently defended his beloved blond country pop singer. "And she is the veritable anthem writer for the people who _can _recognize the meaningfulness of her lyrics!"

"If by 'people' you mean 'broken hearted twelve year olds who are borderline suicidal because Justin Bieber has a girlfriend,' then...yes, I do agree with your statement," she delivered as if on cue.

"She's a global phenomenon and she's quickly becoming a universally recognized cultural icon that—Wait, did you say YouTube?"

She nodded.

"REN!" he howled. "I told him to take down that video! That man is dead to me! Dead!"

"You did seem quite under the influence of alcohol in the video." She tapped her fingers against her lips. "Say, if a video has garnered more than 500,000 views—"

"_SWEET MOTHER OF THE UNIVERSE_. It has 500,000 hits? That's it, I'm choking him to death with his own hair if he comes within a forty mile radius of this place!"

* * *

"Is she...is she laughing?" Ryu whispered in disbelief, half his body hanging out through the open window.

"Surprise, surprise. Tamao can feel happiness," Seyram said mindlessly, surfing through the channels on the television.

"And now she's blushing!" Ryu slumped over the windowsill. "This is amazing!"

"Don't get your hopes up. She reacts the same way whenever she hears that Yoh is coming back."

Ryu clutched his hands to his chest. "Is your primary hobby stomping on the sole beautiful albeit faraway dreams of suffering people everywhere? What else do you enjoy doing? Snatching food away from starving orphans? Shooting dolphins and bunnies and puppies and kittens with a machine gun?"

"Yes, yes, and yes," she said, emphasizing each word with a wave of the remote. "It says so under my interests on Facebook as a matter of fact."

"Har, har. You're so funny." He resumed stalking—er, observing Tamao. "But you're right; she always does get this way whenever it concerns Lord Yoh..."

"What else do you expect of an unrequited love that's more than twenty years old?"

* * *

Redseb walked into the inn in a stupefied daze. "Guess what."

"You discovered a cure for cancer," Ryu offered.

"You're pregnant," Horohoro said.

"You want to undergo an operation so that you can change your gender," Seyram proposed.

Redseb returned to reality. "Um. No, Ryu; shut up, Horo; and what the crap, Seyram?"

She shrugged. "I would be very supportive with whatever you choose to do with your life."

"Anyways, I heard from the Hanagumi waitresses that Tamao hasn't been punishing them! At all! For the past three weeks!" Redseb emphasized each exclamation point with a violent, spastic wave of his arms. "And get this…she actually _apologized_ to Kanna when she bumped into her."

And Horohoro just _knew_…something…

…was…

…changing…

He didn't know exactly _what_. But the epiphany, the lightbulb moment, the revelation, the shining enlightenment that something had happened to the fearsome Mistress Tamao came rushing out of the unnaturally blue sky and smashed his entire being like a proverbial cartoon piano that fell out of a thirty story building.

It was amazing. He literally could see the worry that was just perpetually always there to the extent that people even _forgot_ they were anxious in the inn just melt away. Everyone sat up a little straighter. And Ryu would bet his porn, Redseb his apartment, and Seyram her dignity that this change was going to be permanent.

But Horohoro wasn't ready to throw all his chips in and join all the inn employees (and everyone else within a ten mile radius of the onsen) in their celebrations and happy days just yet. There was something…unsettling about it. It seemed too perfect. Like it was all dangling by a thread but people were too caught up being happy about the change to see it precariously dancing in the wind. He could feel it, deep in his gut.

Indigestion. It's probably just indigestion.

* * *

Dinner was, as dinner always was, uneventful. Not to say that it was boring or unpleasant. Because it wasn't. However, that doesn't imply that it was nice or enjoyable (especially since neither Seyram nor Redseb were present). It just…was. An afterthought in everyone's daily lives: Ryu wanted to back to reading the trashy romance novel Seyram had given to him (in private of course), Tamao wanted to go back and resume her daily singing exercises, Tao Men wanted to get back to ordering his people around and observing (aka, harassing) the poor, unsuspecting residents of the district, Tao Men's people wanted to go home and never have to hear the name "Men" ever again (but since they obviously couldn't do that, they were content with cowering behind their diminutive, Napoleonic master), Kanna wanted to go out for a smoke break as soon as possible, Macchi wanted to read the latest issue of _Guns and Ammo_ that had arrived in the mail earlier that day, and Mari…well, Mari made it clearly evident that she had something else better to do by the expression on her face (but then again, she _always_ had that expression on her face).

And Horohoro…well, he just wanted to take a nap to finish off a lazy day.

Except everyone's plans were rudely interrupted by one extremely angry blond boy.

"Hana!"

He thrust an accusing finger at Tamao. "What the hell?"

Tamao stood up and rushed over to him in concern, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Why…what's the matter?"

The boy, slightly surprised by Tamao's reaction, jerked back a little before resuming his angry tirade. "No one even came looking for me! What kind of family is this?"

Tamao shrunk back, hurt by his words. "Hana…"

"That's why I hate everyone here! No one ever pays attention to me!" he yelled. "You guys treat me like I'm nothing."

"Hana, you know that's not true—"

"I hate you!" He glared at her. "You're not even my real mom!"

Tamao reeled back, her fists clenched. "How did you—"

"I can't believe that you would lie to me about that! I hate you—"

"Hey kid." Everyone turned to look at Horohoro who had spoken. "Shut the hell up."

Hana looked like he had been slapped since, well, no one had ever spoken to him like that before. "W-What?"

"You heard me. Shut up. That's no way to speak to your mother."

Hana glared at him. "She's not even my real—"

Horohoro stood up, his face completely calm. "Does it matter if she gave birth to you or not? She raised you and gave you a place to live for the first fifteen years of your life. That makes her your mom. Don't think you can get away with acting like this just because everyone is scared to mistreat you because of who your parents are." He waved his hand. "Go away."

Hana staggered off in a daze towards his room.

* * *

"Hey." Horohoro found Tamao sitting on the floor of her room and offered her a cup of tea. "Are you okay?"

She looked up at him, her face eerily devoid of emotion. "Yes, why wouldn't I be? Like you said, I raised Hana for fifteen years. I should be used to this by now."

He sat down next to her, stretching his legs out. "'Should be' being the key phrase here…Hmm…"

She looked at him, curiosity flickering across her face. A crack in her previously calm demeanor. "W-Why are you looking at me?"

"Why do you do it?" he asked, drumming his fingers on the floor.

"Because I am indebted to both Lord Yoh and Lady Anna—"

"Bullshit." He looked at her straight on. "That's not it."

Her lips pressed together into a thin, firm line. "The Asakura's adopted me. This is the least I can do."

He shook his head resolutely. "That's not it either. You wouldn't run an entire onsen and willingly tolerate all of Hana's attitude and general angstiness just because you feel you owe it to Yoh and Anna." A beat. A pause. "You still love Yoh, don't you?"

Tamao looked away. "That's not true," she whispered.

"That's why. You even became so similar to Anna after we all parted ways. Enduring all of this won't make him love you, no matter how much hard work you put in. He'll always still love Anna." He drew his legs closer to himself. "But you don't deserve that. So you should try to move past your unrequited love and find someone who will care for you the way you deserve to be treated."

Tamao remained silent for the longest time, her fingers mindlessly tracing the rim of the tea cup. "Can we…not talk about this anymore? I think…I'd like to be alone for a while."

* * *

"She seriously hasn't come out of her room for the past four days?" Redseb asked, worry splattered all over his face. "Sheesh, what did you tell her after your little fiasco with Hana?"

Granted, said little fiasco with Hana resulted in the Asakura boy severely toning down his attitude.

"Um…no…thing…?" Horohoro said, his voice cracking by the end of his statement.

Redseb and Seyram rolled their eyes in unison while Ryu dramatically sighed. "Seriously, Usui? We need her out of there!"

"Yeah, it's not healthy," Redseb said worriedly.

"Well, I was going to say because we need someone to decorate the inn for Christmas and cook the holiday meals," Ryu interjected. "…Oh come on, did you think I was serious?" he protested as he received a chorus of icy glares from everyone.

"Ryu's got a point though. I mean, we're hopeless at decorating and cooking and there's no way that the Hanagumi waitresses are going to come in during the holidays to help out for no pay," Seyram explained. "There's no way we can handle the Christmas crowd without Tamao."

"I think that we did a half decent job decorating," Redseb mumbled, sounding a bit hurt since he had put his entire soul and heart into messily tossing streamers and cutting pathetic paper snowflakes the entire week.

"Redseb, have you _seen_ the place?" Seyram snapped. "It looked like a kindergarten class had their arts and crafts time in here."

Horohoro slammed his fist down onto the tabletop. "This is ridiculous!"

"H-Horo," Ryu blanched, unaccustomed to his old friend displaying such anger.

He shook his head violently. "No, don't you guys see? This is all so…so…stupid! You all are the most amazing people ever and you're always put through stress and worry over what? You all don't deserve that," he exclaimed, gesticulating wildly.

"Then…what do we deserve?" came a quiet voice from the doorway. Tamao had come in, brown paper bags balanced precariously in her arms.

"You all deserve to be happy."

* * *

Horohoro knocked for a seventh time. "Tamao, um. I'm leaving soon for the airport and I haven't seen you for two days since you came out of your room so…uh…I wanted to give you your present but…uh…I guess you're not coming out so…I'll just leave it here." He crouched down to leave the small box on the floor when the door swung open.

"Oh."

Horohoro blinked. "Oh." He stood up, present still in his hands. "Hi."

She offered him a small smile. "Hi." She pushed the door back even more. "Do you want to come in?"

"Yes. Er, yes I would love to come in. Well, I don't mean love because I mean love is such a strong word so I guess I would like to come in…not to say that going into your room is only good enough for—" he stumbled along as he nearly sprinted inside. "Holy…Great Spirit on a pogo stick."

"S-Sorry for the mess…" Tamao said hurriedly as she scurried around tidying up. There didn't seem to be a square inch of the room that _wasn't_ completely covered by tinsel, ribbon, garlands, glitter, lights, wreaths or ornaments.

"Did Santa's workshop collide with the Christmas display at the department store downtown or…" He pursed his lips as he surveyed the room in silent, awed admiration.

"Did you really think that I'd let the inn go through the holiday season without me?" she teased while suppressing a small smile as she eyed the gift in Horohoro's hand. "You brought me a present?" She clasped her hands together as if she were a little girl all over again before remembering that she was in her twenties and then she promptly folded them primly in her lap.

He started. "Oh! Yeah, I did." He fingered the plain brown paper that the store owner had wrapped the gift in. "It's nothing big or…yeah. Don't get your hopes up too much, it's just something small to…er…" He twisted the slightly frayed ends of the itchy twine that bound the present together before bashfully handing it over. "So…um… What's with all the decorations—"

He looked up, startled to see that she had ripped into the present, the wrapping paper curled up in shreds by her feet.

"…What." Tamao looked slightly mortified as she realized what Horohoro had gotten her. She blanched. "You g-got…m-m-me…"

"They're supposed to help with your…um…divination. That's what the guy at the store said, at least."

"Animal bones?" She dropped them back in the box as if they were red hot, wiping her hands rapidly and repeatedly on her sleeve.

And then that's when he heard it. The most beautiful, glorious noise to ever grace his ears. Something that brought an even bigger smile to his face than the sound bacon makes when it's sizzling away on the pan. Something that brought him even greater excitement than when he heard Redseb calling everyone for dinner or saw freshly fallen snow coating the mountains signaling the start of snowboarding season.

It was Tamao's laugh. She was doubled over, tears welling up in her eyes, and letting out peals of joyous laughter with complete abandon.

And it was in that moment that Horohoro just _smiled_. Because he knew that at that second, for once, Tamao wasn't thinking of Yoh or what Anna would deem proper or her etiquette or what was embarrassing. She was only thinking of how funny it was that Horohoro didn't know that Tamao didn't use animal bones for divination, let alone even see or touch them in real life.

And later that day Horohoro did indeed leave for the airport. Maybe he often thought of immediately flying back to the inn wherever he was. Maybe he wrote letters to Tamao and Ryu and Redseb and Seyram and even the Hanagumi waitresses. Maybe eventually he did go back and set up a marimo shop next to the inn. Maybe, after a forced, failed bonding trip with Hana wherein they both fished in a lake that didn't even _have_ any marine life in it, he got closer with Yoh's son. Maybe none of this happened. Maybe all of it did. Maybe some.

But there was one thing that was for certain and it was that Horohoro spent most of his days hanging around the inn and being the happiest he ever was because really only sunlit days were in store for the whole gang. And people walking past the _onsen_ often heard two words laughingly exclaimed after a loud, noisy crash or a plume of smoke erupting out of the kitchen or water completely flooding the first floor:

"Yes, ma'am!"

* * *

**A/N**: oh my god. words cannot even _**begin**_ to describe how long i've been working on this story. i've been working on it for nearly a year (since April 2010). funny enough, everything except the last scene was finished around the end of summer of 2010 but i never got around to finishing it until now because of college and i absolutely fail at managing my time. anyways, this was intended to be the second part of **elviella's** birthday fic (the first part being my story _**Tangled!**_ that I posted up in december...a fail considering that her birthday was in like november.

i can't even describe how good it feels to be able to put up another story! I started this as an attempt to fill in the gaps of _Flowers_ (the sequel to _Shaman King_ because I would extremely surprised if Takei ever got around to finishing or continuing _Flowers_). And even if Takei did continue it, _Flowers_ would undoubtedly focus on Hana and his adventures instead of the little people (who i find vastly more fascinating than Yoh's son). I did my best to follow the framework that _Flowers_ set up, going so far as to quoting Horohoro, Tamao, and Amidamaru's dialogue in that one scene almost verbatim from the manga. so i suppose you could say that this story is the one that follows the manga that most out of all my other stories (since they are mostly AU).

also, the scene where Horohoro is getting an umbrella for Tamao was inspired by **Bloch1's** piece on deviantart (bloch1 . deviantart . com/art/For-BjAkA-154582343). Bloch1 has many beautifully, beautifully illustrated Ren/Pirika pieces that have inspired me to no end for many of my RP fics! (So check her out!)

i also wrote this story not only because there is a sorry lack of Horo/Tam stories in the FFNet archives but also because of the way both characters are portrayed in the majority of fics. let's get one thing straight: Tamao and Horo are _extremely_ dynamic characters with a lot of depth (as are all of Takei's characters). Sadly enough, in the majority of fics here, Tamao is portrayed as a caricature or stereotype of _one_ of her traits: she's portrayed as an extremely, painfully quiet girl who is infatuated with Yoh and cooks a lot...and that's it. there isn't any more to her character. or if the fic is post-Funbari no uta, then she's just "the bitch" of the story...and that's it. or in AU fics she's just "one of Anna's friends" or just "one of the OC's friends" and serves as just "the female friend character" wherein her dialogue and actions are generic. same thing with horo: he's just the idiotic friend, the comic relief along with Chocolove. but that's the thing: Tamao and horo have SO many other characteristics. Tamao is caring and kind and nuturing and motherly and she's strong and protective of the ones she loves and she's earnest and easily embarrassed and shy and innocent while also harboring a lot of pain and there are _reasons_ why she acts the way she does in _Flowers_. and Horohoro is funny but also extremely capable of emotional depth and is compassionate and passionate and bold and brave and cooperative and curious and...and just so many other things that it irks me when he's just portrayed as the dumb idiot.

so anyways, the SK fandom is essentially dead but thank you so much for reading this! since that shows you're still very much dedicated to the fandom, very dedicated to me, or very dedicated to Horo/Tam. Are there even any other readers out there who ship Horo/Tam aside from myself and elviella? And it seems that most of my older readers have left the fandom for another one or just stopped reading fic altogether...so if you were one of my older readers and if you are reading this...THANK YOU SO MUCH! it would be absolutely lovely if you left a review (even if i haven't updated regularly for nearly half a year to a year, i still get many notifications from FFNet saying that my stories have been faved or alerted...but I never get reviews for them.)

it would mean the world to me, especially as i am stressing over my finals these next 10 days, if you dropped me a review for this story or for any others of mine that you read. really. i put in hours upon hours and sometimes even months of work on one single story so it would be nice to get some feedback :)

**happy days to you all!**

ps: check me out/add me on livejournal (shatteredlyre . livejournal . com) or tumblr (daniellaeheh . tumblr . com)

pps: sorry for the extremely long author's note but i honestly do not know when i will update next and i really missed y'all.

ppps: i do not know when i will update CC. my next (attempt at a) fic will be a _My Commensal_ installment featuring Anna/Yoh

**pppps: don't forget to review!**

ppppps: my birthday is in exactly a week. i'm going to be 19. oh.**  
**


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